Oh, well

Still heard nothing, which either means Helen was right and junior has turned up and turned their world upside down - or they are not interested. The Estate Agent phoned and said that they are not returning their calls.
Anyway, the sun has been shining and I've been out walking and we are going on holiday tomorrow to North Yorkshire for a week, so things can't be that bad can they?

They've been

Well, I'm still hopeful! Mrs Very Pregnant arrived with Aunt (who was very nice) and they had a good, long look round on their own. They were very busy. They worked out that the wall of the small bedroom is not load bearing (by Aunt going up into the loft) and that they could therefore enlarge the little room into the huge master bedroom (no-one else has thought of that, including us!) They've extended the kitchen out into the coal shed. They've stripped out the hawthorne hedge (ouch on a lot of levels) and replaced it with fence panels.
The sun co-operated for once, and displayed the house at its most charming. Warm light streamed in through the French windows to the lounge, and onto the yellow walls of the bedroom. The birds sang, and the garden will have been fragrant with warm soil cooling down.
Mrs V.P. kept wandering around the rooms for a second and third time, before they started to leave, and we stood chatting on the doorstep for a while. We had a laugh about ways to bring on the reluctant baby, and Aunt admired the clematis tumbling over the front porch.
What do you reckon?

Ooh, please ... !

Yesterday evening we had some viewers round. They've sold their place. They want to live on our road (and there's not much else for sale here). They liked our house, and really spent their time having a good look round. She's VERY pregnant (it's due next week). They seemed very interested that we were moving to rented to break the chain.
Please cross everything ... this is about as close as we've come so far!
And if that doesn't work out, we have a second time viewer this afternoon. I think that penny I found might have shifted our luck.

The best things in life are free

I phoned up to check what the fees would be for the Art & Design course I'm applying for.
"There aren't any," the helpful lady on the phone told me.
"Bargain!" I replied.
I've just finished my application form. Do you sometimes get the feeling that the Universe is telling you when you've finally got the right idea?

Libraries and Stuff

Aren't libraries wonderful? I've just spent a pleasurable half hour or so browsing the crafts section, and have come home with some books on knitwear and textile design. Enough to whet my appetite and give me some ideas. And if I give up on the whole idea or get bored, I just take them back and no money has been wasted. Wonderful.
The cotton t-shirt thing is coming on. I'm not far off starting the armhole shaping. It takes so long, though, knitting in double knitting. Which is why it is coming on slowly, as I do about a couple of cm and then get bored.
I've been missing my art course, and so have been researching art and design courses in Warwickshire. I've come up with this one http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/site/courses/pregrad/foundpt.htm and plan to apply and see what happens.
We had a wonderful weekend, lots of walking, fresh air and daylight. And three art exhibitions. I felt much better by the end of the weekend than I did at the beginning (more viewers on Sat morning, actually in a position to buy, but no sign that they liked it).
Today is weary day. I've had a busy two days at work, and then woke up just before Rick at 5.35am. I think a nap might be in order.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Back again

It seems like a long time since I've posted here. My life seems not much worth writing about, really. Work is definitely going better these days. Weekends usually involve tidying the house, showing viewers round and then getting out of the house as far as possible - just walking locally. I spent last Sunday morning squatting in the hawthorne hedge, clearing out dead wood and planting holly seedlings to fill in the gap. I've noticed that our next door neighbour has planted a bush (rhodedendron I think) on the other side of the gap, which I see as a good sign.
I had a bit of an epiphany last week, when for the first time I sat and wrote pages and pages of freewriting. I've been getting increasingly depressed with our 'stuckness' with the house situation, and recognised that I feel out of control. The housing market is not something that I can resolve. So I decided I need to treat this time as an opportunity to just enjoy the present, not worry about or plan the future. That is easier said than done for me, but it is what I am trying to do.
I am continuing to do more exercise, and am not as embarassingly out of breath after climbing two flights of stairs as I used to be. That's a good sign, isn't it?